Terry Link is the founder of the Michigan Peace Alliance, a coalition of 25+ peace and justice organizations in Michigan networking and sharing resources to build a more peaceful world. He agreed to answer a few of my questions.
Q. As an individual, an ordinary citizen, what can I do, today, to begin a personal peace practice? We all have causes we are passionate about, but it can be overwhelming because there are so many challenges. To what degree can my daily practice produce personal fulfillment and satisfaction, and when should I extend that effort to impact the community as a whole?
A. I am a both/and thinker. So personal practice and larger community change are linked. Calming oneself, slowing down and trying to be more intentional are aspects of personal practice towards enabling peace to grow, personally and in community. This is not a static balance in my mind, but a dynamic. When one senses being out of balance it’s time to recalibrate.
Q. Everyone has a unique opinion about the political climate in our country. It seems uncontroversial to say that it is argumentative, sometimes toxic, and can be a source of conflict. What do you see as the fundamental function of argumentation in clarifying our beliefs, and at what point does it encourage argumentativeness?
A. Tone is crucial. We should harbor some humility that we have an incomplete picture of possibility and be open to learning about missing pieces from those with different viewpoints. Our hyper-fixation on competition and winning gets in the way and sets up battle lines. We become obsessed with our ideas dominating other positions. Putting points in question form or asking how the other comes to hold the belief they are expressing is a good listening device that can open up the space for a respectful exchange.
Q. Despite the differences between the political left and right from generation to generation, a distinction seems to remain between the powerful and the weak. It is evident in the current debate around wealth inequality. Should the weak rise up against their perceived oppressors, or should they take some other approach to solve this age-old problem? Does the answer to this question reveal anything about current attitudes toward the political left? How can justice be achieved by peaceful means?
A. Working to create an ethos of equality of power is challenging in an unequal power relationship. Silence doesn’t help. There is a motto from the protagonists in the novel “Dandelion Insurrection” (Rivera Sun) that encapsulates this for me “Be Kind. Be Connected. Be Unafraid.” It’s challenging to operationalize, but at its heart lies real wisdom in my mind.
Q. Is human thought fundamentally oppositional? Is that unchangeable? Is there even a way for a peace activist to begin to address this issue?
A. I don’t think human thought is “fundamentally” oppositional. But it is a product of our time. Could we evolve away from competition to cooperation as a “fundamental? Yes, we can, but it is uphill. Reframing things into a cooperative option provides others to see different possibilities.
Q. Several philosophers believe that humans are essentially self-interested, so encouraging them to be more selfless goes against their nature. What do you think about that question? Is there a human nature that limits our ability to improve social and behavioral outcomes? Can humans be changed or are they fixed, and to what extent?
A. Humans are not uni-directional in my view. We are more complex and are products of our larger environments. It will take generations to make the kind of changes in the culture, unless catastrophe forces one to accept that cooperation is essential to our living on a finite planet with a single human family and the rest of life on it.
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